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			Background 
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			Background 
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			<span class="trademark">HomePlug</span>® AV is an industry standard protocol for powerline communications developed by the <a class="ulink" href="http://www.homeplug.org/home" target="_top">HomePlug Powerline Alliance</a>. Qualcomm Atheros manufactures a family of chipsets that conform to that standard and have MII, UART and SPI host interfaces. The <span class="productname">INT6x00</span>™ and <span class="productname">AR7x00</span>™ series are flagship members of that chipset family. The principle difference between the chipsets is their boot method, cost and speed. The <span class="trademark">INT6000</span>™ requires onboard NVRAM but the <span class="productname">INT6300</span>™, <span class="productname">INT6400</span>™ and <span class="productname">AR7400</span>™ do not. 
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			The <span class="trademark">HomePlug</span>® AV protocol is based on IEEE-802.3, has ethertype <code class="constant">0x88E1</code> and uses special message formats. A subset of those message formats is reserved for each chipset vendor to define their own message formats. Qualcomm Atheros uses this vendor-specific subset to communicate between host processors and Qualcomm Atheros devices. This toolkit uses Qualcomm Atheros vendor-specific message formats to communicates with Qualcomm Atheros devices. It also understands Qualcomm Atheros firmware and configuration file formats. 
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			This toolkit sends and receives Qualcomm Atheros vendor-specific messages but not generic <span class="trademark">HomePlug</span>® AV messages. Qualcomm Atheros vendor-specific management message formats are described in the Qualcomm Atheros <em class="citetitle"><span class="trademark">HomePlug</span>® AV Firmware Technical Reference Manual</em>. If you do not have a copy of this document then you may request one from Qualcomm Atheros.
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			Toolkit Distribution
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